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I’m in Boston for the NEASA conference. The theme of the conference is “The Arts and the Public.” Should be good.
I opted not to fly to Boston this time. With each recent flight I have found myself growing more and more fed up with airline travel. I realized that even “short flights” become agonizingly long by the time one factors in security, customs, weather-related delays, over-crowded runways, etc.
For this trip I decide to take Amtrak down from Niagara Falls. It was a lovely trip, but the goddesses of travel wanted to make sure that I understood loud & clear that things like weather-related delays are not just limited to air travel. Ho hum. I was hours late getting into Boston because high winds knocked out power on the rail lines between New York and Boston.
Ok. Message received loud & clear. Travel can be a royal pain in the butt no matter what form of transportation one takes. I get it.
Having said that, I still think I’d opt for a train over a plane in the future if circumstances permit. It is just a more pleasant way to travel. On both the Niagara Falls – NYC and the NYC – Boston journeys the cars I rode in were nearly silent. It was quiet and peaceful, and I found the gentle sway of the cars relaxing. (so much so that I had a few naps along the way. I can’t recall the last time I was able to sleep on a plane!) The autumn scenery whipping along outside my window was beautiful to look at, and the dining car (yes, there was an actual dining car!) had vegan burgers and Sam Adams. I wouldn’t say it was the world’s best burger, but it sure the heck beats any airline food I’ve had recently (oh wait, that is because they generally never have anything I can eat!). Even the several hour delay in NYC wasn’t so bad — I mean, really, there are worse places to have to kill a few hours! I was thinking about how easy it was to just walk out of Penn Station and go for a stroll. Compare this to when you are stuck at an airport — airports are generally in the middle of nowhere and even if you decided to take a cab from the airport to another part of the city, there is the whole matter of having to go back through security, customs, etc. upon your return.
Plus, it is just a whole lot more fun to take pictures along the rail lines, and, really, doesn’t it always boil down to visual culture in the end anyhow?
We had a slow morning this morning — the 11 hour drive from Quebec City wore us out! When we finally did get up and going we headed out to Peggy’s Cove, that most recognizable East Coast tourist destination. When we arrived we were greeted by sign telling us that this is one of the most photographed landscapes in Canada. I don’t doubt it. Even with the throngs of people and the steady stream of tour buses pulling in, it was a pretty neat place to visit. I kicked off my sandals and curled up like a cat to enjoy the sun streaming down on the rocks around the world-famous lighthouse. I wish I could bottle up the sea air and take it home with me — amazing!
I always love people-watching in these high-traffic tourist areas. Some folks seemed to be really enjoying the sights, others seemed like they wanted to rush in and out so they could check off Peggy’s Cove on their list of “things to see.” I overheard a heated argument in the gift shop between a teenager who wanted to buy a souvenir shot glass for a girl back home and his exasperated parents who thought the gift was a bad idea because the intended recipient wasn’t of legal drinking age. Never a dull moment when observing the minutia of other people’s family vacations!
I think the most fascinating thing was watching the steady stream of people attempting the next-to-impossible task of getting a photograph of their family in front of the lighthouse with no other tourists around. (The line up of people trying to take that postcard perfect shot made me think of Martin Parr’s photography) Why do we insist on visually replicating the fiction of being an isolated visitor in any “nature spot” designated as a tourist area? (I’m not sure I have the answer, but I do address this in my forthcoming book, Manufacturing National Park Nature).
A long day of sight-seeing and people-watching left us hungry, so tonight we headed over to The Wooden Monkey. What a fun, fabulous and funky vegan-friendly place. The beer was good, the food was outstanding (such a treat to be able to choose from a number of things on the menu!) and the atmosphere was friendly. I had a pizza with vegan cheese and soy brûlée for dessert — delicious!
The news about the abuse uncovered on an Ohio Dairy Farm by Mercy for Animals has hit the global media. The horrific film footage showing cows and calves being beaten, stabbed and kicked is stomach-turning.
I wish this were an isolated incident, but as anyone who has tried to learn more about where our food comes from knows all too well, abuse of animals in factory farm settings is not uncommon.
There is no doubt that this is difficult stuff to read about, look at, and discuss, but we need to know about it. I can’t tell you how many people have said to me “oh, I can’t look at that stuff. I can’t hear about animal abuse or look too hard into where my food comes from.” These are often well-educated, intelligent people who I love and respect. And yet on this point I must respectfully disagree. If you care about your health, the health of your family, about animals or the fate of our planet nothing could be more important than knowing these sorts of “dirty little secrets” that the factory farming industry would rather we didn’t know.
I’m not saying we should all make a bowl of popcorn and sit down with the family to watch the Ohio dairy farm footage on the big screen TV. And yet, as Ed Burtynsky pointed out during an interview on CBC’s The Current yesterday, imagery is often what brings much needed attention to an issue. Burtynsky was not talking about the Ohio Dairy Farm case but, rather, about another horrific story, the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The point, however, is valid in both instances.
As someone who teaches about and conducts research on visual culture, this point is one that I have spent a lot of time thinking about. Right now I’m doing a lot of work on 19th century animal welfare activism and, in particular, the use of imagery in that movement. The great 19th century reformer Frances Power Cobbe began one of her illustrated anti-vivisection pamphlets with the words: “Do Not Refuse to Look at These Pictures.” She went on to discuss why it was so important for people to see with their own eyes the ways in which animals were treated behind closed doors in medical laboratories. Cobbe recognized that most people would not be granted access to these labs (just as we aren’t easily granted access to factory farm complexes) and, as such, she strongly believed in the power of visual culture to convey this difficult information to a broader public.
Things haven’t changed that much since Cobbe’s day and here I’d like to repeat her plea — “do not refuse to look at these pictures.” We can not keep ignoring what is going on.
I love Seed — they feature the most interesting stories and sites, including two of my new favourite online exhibits:
Well, sabbatical hasn’t started off as I’d hoped. I got walloped by a nasty cold/flu thing this past week and spent 4 full days in bed. *blech* Much TLC, hot tea, and the occasional Chocolate MoMint biscuit have helped me beat it, so I’m back to work today.
Instead of spending any more time going down the rabbit hole of image permissions and copyright, I’m going to finish up the text portion of my manuscript and send it off. I’d like to finish it today. Then I can get back to dealing with the images. I love, love, love studying visual culture. I couldn’t imagine working in any other field. And yet, the frustration and stress around securing image copies and permissions, etc. is enough to make me lose my mind. I wish there were a straightforward checklist that one could use for this kind of activity, but it seems that every image I want to use (and those that my friends and colleagues seem to use too) is anything but “straightforward.” Ah well, it will be a learning experience I suppose.
In other news, I was delighted to see this article in the local paper today — I’d love it if St. Catharines became a hub for the GO train! Oh, and on the car-free front, I am not at all regretting my decision to “retire my ride.” I was a little worried about the hassle of cancelling my insurance — the last time I had to do that it was a royal pain in the neck and I got dinged several hundred dollars for “early cancellation.” It seems that this time I need not have worried. The good folks over at CAA have been super-duper helpful and, in fact, I received a refund cheque in the mail today. The only hitch is that I’m still waiting for my $300 from the “retire your ride” folks — it has been nearly 2 months since they picked up my car. I’m going to have to call and see what’s up.
Ok, time to get on with these final manuscript edits!
When the semester gets busy the regular blogging comes screeching to a halt. When I first started blogging RBOCs were all the rage — a quick and dirty way to post about unrelated topics. I’m sure there are new terms for this practice now, but I’m too tired to think of them.
In no particular order:
-I had much fun in Toronto last week: The Royal, a play at the fabulous Tarragon Theatre, shopping in Kensington Market and a dee-licious dinner at King’s Cafe.
-I also took in a live NHL game last week. My favourite team (the Edmonton Oilers) were playing against the Buffalo Sabres, so Colleen and I got tickets, donned our Oilers gear and headed “over the river” to check it out. Ultimately the “good guys” lost, but we still had a most excellent time. The game was very good (the shots were nearly even), and the Buffalo fans were a lot of fun. I grew up in Edmonton during the “dynasty years” and was lucky enough to have gone to a number of games back in the day, but it has been ages since I’ve taken in a live NHL game. I must do it again soon!
-And on the subject of Buffalo, we discovered a very good brew pub. If you are into good beer, check out the Pearl Street Grill & Brewery. You won’t be disappointed!
-The James A. Gibson Library at Brock has just published their latest newsletter. In that newsletter is an article about Brock faculty who blog and it features yours truly. Neat.
-Rumblings of an expanded GO service in Niagara have me feeling hopeful. This doesn’t counter my disappointment over the decision to remove the recently-created bike lanes in downtown St. Catharines though.
-I’m thinking a lot about climate change these days. I’m also thinking a lot about how amazing David Suzuki and the folks at his foundation are. I wish our elected leaders would get with the program. Dr. Suzuki is urging all Canadians who care about climate change to give the PM’s office a call about this — there are even prizes to be won for doing so.
-Today in my Canadian Art History class I brought in a film on Pegi Nicol MacLeod. I seriously adore this artist and imagine she would have been a lot of fun to hang around with.
-Why is Battle of the Blades still on my TV? Why???
-On the other end of the CBC Television programming spectrum, I really, really enjoyed the 3 part series, Darwin’s Brave New World. If you missed it you can catch the episodes online.
Today the David Suzuki Foundation posted the link to this new TckTckTck campaign video, a project designed to raise awareness about Climate Change. In this video Lily Allen, Youssou N’Dour, Hawksley Workman and others have teamed up to produce a Band Aid-type production.
(Is Duran Duran the only band that was involved in both projects?)
On a related note, I will forever wish I’d been in attendance during this performance by Midnight Oil at the 1993 Clayoquot Sound protests.
ARTstor and The Museum of Modern Art have teamed up to make images from the MoMA’s collection available through the ARTstor database. Excellent news!!
A couple of new online sources for research on 19th century art & culture:
Nineteenth-century Scholarship Online
The Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource
In other exciting online news, the good folks over at ARTstor continue to add to build their collection of images, and have even partnered with the Metropolitan Museum of Art to include more IAP images in the database. Very good news!
When I was checking out Boing Boing tonight (thanks for the reminder, Laurie!) I came across a link to Dan Hillier’s website. I’m simply smitten with his “altered engravings” and wondering why I am only discovering them now.
